By Chris Hardy

A RIGGING team travelled half the length of Scotland yesterday to rescue Taz the Montrose moggie trapped on top of a 120ft high grain silo.

Simon Evans and Archie Smith had been working on mobile phone masts at Kielder in the Borders when they got the call from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals asking if they could help to rescue Taz from the old silo, which is now topped by communications masts for a number of mobile phone operators.

Within 15 minutes of arriving in Montrose the rescue was completed without a scratch.

The two men climbed the exterior ladders and Simon clambered inside where the timbers were rotten and covered in three inches of pigeon excrement.

“I could see Taz and I was able to grab him before he disappeared under the floorboards,” said Simon.

“Once I had hold of him he was quite friendly.”

It was a grateful owner Tracy McKechnie who heard Simon call out “Got him!”—and a minute later she was reunited with Taz at ground level.

“It was very considerate of these lads to drop everything to come up here,” said the SSPCA’s local inspector Mark Lumgair.

“The building is in far too dangerous a condition for anyone other than experienced riggers to enter and they have done a great job.

“I think this was the only way we were going to get up to the cat ,and I am delighted he came down willingly,” he said.

Mrs McKechnie—slightly embarrassed at the fuss three-year-old Taz had caused—was nonetheless delighted to be reunited with the family pet.

“I am deeply grateful to the two men who came to rescue him. I have had Taz since he was four weeks old and he’s just an ordinary tabby cat but he is close to my heart.

“He seems none the worse for his escapade.”

Taz went missing last Thursday and on Monday morning Mr Lumgair received a call to say a cat was trapped on the roof of the silo.

Several visits were made but there was no sight of the missing moggie and an escape hole was created at the bottom of the silo in the hope he might see himself out.

Two further calls on Tuesday night to say the cat could still be heard prompted Mr Lumgair’s return yesterday and when Taz was spotted at the top floor window the rescue plan swung into action.

It took Simon and Archie over four hours to make the journey north through gale-force winds and via a diversion caused by an accident on the Forth Road Bridge.

After their rescue operation Mrs McKechnie went home to give Taz some pampering—and to lock the cat flap.